1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to metallized polymeric film material and more particularly to controlling the surface appearance of such metallized film material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Metallized plastic film material has found many industrial and consumer oriented applications. For instance, it is widely employed as a useful and attractive packaging material. It is also desirable as a decorative wall covering material or in the manufacture of aesthetically pleasing components for the interior of automobile passenger compartments. Another popular application involves the formation of laminates of metallized film with rigid plastic material to manufacture disposable dinnerware items. In most applications the metallized film material will have a high gloss or mirror-like finish at its surface. If it is thought desirable to give the film material a softer, more satiny appearance, one frequent method used to accomplish such result has been the addition of an opaque topcoat to the film material, thereby dulling the mirror-like finish. Another method of dulling the finish has been to brush the surface and thereby, in effect, etch it to remove the gloss. Such a brushing approach, of course, has the basic requirement that the metallized film have a fairly thick layer of plastic material so that one does not completely wear through the film in the process of dulling it.